Rambling,Father's Day, PITA, spam,gardening,nature, dreams, etc.

Posted Monday, June 20, 2011, at 8:12 AM

Wow, what a title! I've been saving the random thoughts too long. Soon they will disappear into my senile room, only to be remembered in unrelated conversations when I am X(pick the age). I was going to say 90 but my 92 year young mother-in-law remembers better than Deb & I.

No Father's Day posts yesterday? I was thinking of one when I got up. In fact, I had a few poignant thoughts. (who cares what poignant means, I just liked using it) One was to thank my wife for being the other half of our creation story.

The other one that sticks in my mind (the others went to my senile room) is not to necessarily wish Fathers a happy day, but to point out that being a good father takes caring, work, devotion, loyalty, responsibility and love, among many other attributes.

It does not necessarily have to do with DNA or genes. You can be the biological donor to the creation of a life, but not be my definition of a true Father. Even if a situation occurs that takes you away from your children, there is SOMETHING you can do to let them know you are thinking of them, SUPPORTING them, and loving them.

My perception as a kid growing up was that a one parent or divorced household was a rarity. Maybe it wasn't, but unless you are dead, there is some way to stay in your child's life. Please, please make the effort.

OK now, let me get off this stump and move on. Some of you have written here, and Saturday I heard from other folks at the Moon Pie & RC Cola Festival who said they enjoyed my reports on PITA. She has been better, which reduces my fodder (material) for entertaining blurbs, BUT she still has her moments.

For reasons only known to her, she was hyper this morning. I could see it in her mannerisms before I got to the door and sure 'nuff, she lived up to my expectations.

Two of our gutter downspouts had been dislocated from the side of the house. One aluminum section had teeth marks and bent shut and another piece is still missing.

The ribbed tubing that diverts the water away from the house, the one that I BURIED IN CONCRETE & UNDER ROCKS, had been chewed and partially removed from the ground. She is amazingly strong. The other thoughts are not fit to write.

Has anyone noticed a remarkable reduction in e-mail spam this weekend? Were they all celebrating Father's Day or did some of our reverse thoughts catch up to them?

I thought something was wrong with my cell phone and actually recycled it a few times to see why I was not getting constant e-mails notices. Weird, I was actually going through withdrawal symptoms?

My "Middle Earth" garden is doing well. The dill has taken over the lower section, mullein the middle and Cilantro (Coriander)the top, with a few Chinese cabbage mixed in. After I recently read all the benefits of mullein, I might actually harvest some.

The few intentional plantings are holding their own as well. The Egyptian onions from cherokee2, tomatoes, asparagus and some intentional herbs seem to calling to the daturas and squash from espoontoon. Plant me, plant me. They should be planted by week's end.

We had our acres logged recently and I would have expected this dream to have come along a month ago. I dreamed that I woke up to find that someone had cut down all the trees and vegetation between the road and our house!

No more privacy, no more solitude. Somehow, they also built a four-lane highway. I know some of you live in homes like this, but it did not happen over night and you apparently do not find the need to be a recluse. I, on the other hand am terrified of progress and people. Well, maybe not quite that bad, but I like Mother Nature all around me.

Speaking of M.N., she is playing tricks on me. She moved my catnip and in the process almost wiped it out (jury is still out on that one).

Now she has moved a group of wild flowers that have been in the same place on our driveway for YEARS. Debbi and I kept wondering what happened to them and suddenly they are about 40 feet farther down! What is the next surprise?

Well, that about covers my ramblings for this morning. I heard the 8:00 whistle blow so it is back to the work week.

The hunt is on. One of my few tomato plants has a visitor eating the leaves. Everything about it says tomato hornworm, but I can not find it!

The plant is not huge at the moment and after the rains we had this weekend there is no tell-tale poop on the leaves, but it has to be there! UNLESS, the birds we have been feeding for years did their job and picked it for me.

They are right in front of me as I sit here working, so maybe I will be able to thank them. In fact, I need to go out right now and check again.

Pause.

Nope, no hornworm. I did find one smaller caterpillar but this one was in a different area and had not inflicted the same damage.

I have no real issue about killing these guys but when I catch them, I usually move them to survive, or not somewhere else. Of course, I may stack the deck a little by putting them next to the bird feeder, but....;-) (That's a wink in case you did not know)

It is still before the opening bell so instead of returning to work, I pulled some grass out of an iris bed and tried to teach PITA how to weed. She carry a few but then decided it was better to smother them with her body. She laid on top of grass an iris alike.

The squash got planted espoontoon. along with some Chilean peppers. They sure are pretty as they ripen. One of Melissa's friends ate them straight from the bush and kept a straight face, so I might try them myself, after I get a six-pack.

-- Posted by stevemills on Tue, Jun 21, 2011, at 7:31 AM

We finally gave up on trying to have beautiful tulips each year. It seems that the squirrels had a different idea about where the bulbs should be planted.

-- Posted by leeiii on Tue, Jun 21, 2011, at 9:45 AM

My tulips never seemed to get enough chill and got weaker each year, but now that global warming is here, they might get the chill they need.

Maybe we should invite some squirrels to our garden club to find out their theory on tulip distribution. I bet it was at least a surprise each spring.

-- Posted by stevemills on Tue, Jun 21, 2011, at 11:07 PM

Steve, would you like to have some celosia seed? It likes sun, grows and spreads (from seed) like wildfire...just ask espoontoon!

-- Posted by wildflower727 on Fri, Jun 24, 2011, at 10:24 AM

You have HIS variety?

Sure, I would like some. I like things that reseed. They go well in my wild gardens this year. (similar to wildflowers, just the whole garden)

-- Posted by stevemills on Fri, Jun 24, 2011, at 10:55 AM

Uh-huh. That stuff should be on an invasive plant list. I've pulled up thousands, and continue to pull them up. I have a feeling I'll be dealing with them for a long time....

Steve Mills and his wife have one daughter and live on a farm outside of Bell Buckle. They previously owned two coffee/ice cream shops, currently operate an internet sales company and teach classes, but his primary job involves the paper industry worldwide. Hobbies and interests lie in gardening, photography, recorded music and of course, their pets.